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Homeschooler to serve on Vermont Board of Education

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) Gov. James Douglas has appointed a homeschooler to serve on the state Board of Education.

Susan Schill of Belvidere is believed to be the first board member to educate her children at home.

”An increasing number of Vermont families are choosing home schooling,” Douglas said Friday. ”I think it would be helpful to have that perspective represented on the board. The board is responsible for the education for all Vermonters.” Read more…

Religion Still Major Force in US Home Schooling

School enrollment in the United States is at an all-time high. There are now more than 53 million students attending primary and secondary schools in this country. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the number hasn’t been that high since 1970, when the youngest members of the so-called “Baby Boomer” generation were children. The overwhelming majority of American students study in community-run classrooms, a tradition that began in the 19th century, and was the norm by the turn of the 20th. But an increasing number are learning the old-fashioned way; at home with their parents as teachers. And the “separation between Church and State” that animates American law is part of the reason why. Read more…

Home Schooling Presents Many Challenges to Parents

Home schooling is a growing trend in America. But, families that choose the flexibility and freedom of this education option also find many challenges.

Many American families have found home schooling valuable for their children, but education authority, Mitchell Stevens, says they find there are costs as well. “One is how costly home schooling is in terms of parental time. Home schooling virtually requires the presence of a full-time parent at home, and that can be very costly both financially in terms of the lost income the parents might be earning if he or she were at work,” he says. “But, also in terms of the kind of career choices and sacrifices home school parents need to make to be home with their children.” Read more…

Home Schooling No Longer Domain of Pioneers

They are no longer pioneers embarking on a risky adventure, those men and women who homeschool their children go where many others have tread. While an estimated 15,000 young people were home schooled in the late 1970’s, now nearly two million receive their education at home.

In the early 1970’s home schooling was a novelty in the United States. Whether they were aware of it or not, people who chose to home school their children started a grassroots movement in America, one that has flourished. According to home schooling authority, Mitchell Stevens, the movement was fostered by two unlikely allies; one – conservative, deeply religious Protestants – the other – liberal educational non- conformists. “I think home schooling does grow directly out of a kind of anti-establishment sensibility of the 1970’s and that is parents increasing suspicion that bureaucratic models of schooling don’t adequately serve their children’s individual needs, that schools are organized to serve the average child but my child is not average, that schools treat children in standardized ways, but my child is an individual,” he says. Read more…

Arkansas Legislators Delay Home-Schooling Bill

LITTLE ROCK � Surrounded by dozens of home-schooled children, a legislative panel decided to punt Thursday on a measure that would have given the Department of Education broad authority over home schools.

The matter was referred for interim study, meaning it will be discussed by the House Education Committee in the months leading up to the 2005 legislative session.

Under House Bill 2518 by Rep. John Lewellen, D-Little Rock, the state Board of Education �may undertake measures to ensure that home-school students receive a quality education.�

�We don�t want any of these Arkansas residents to be left behind,� Lewellen told the House Education Committee of the state�s 12,474 home schooled students.

Lewellen said Arkansas, five other states and the District of Columbia have no subject or curriculum requirements for home school teachers. Read more…

A lesson in sharing for homeschool family

After years of wanting to volunteer with Meals on Wheels of Central of Maryland, Catonsville resident Janet Koletty finally got her chance.

Recently Koletty and her son, T.J., started volunteering with the organization, which provides hot and cold meals to homebound individuals.

On most Wednesdays, Koletty and T.J. take a break from their home school day and deliver lunches to a group of people who live in and around Catonsville. Their weekly trips begin midmorning at Christ Lutheran Church, which has hosted the program for more than 30 years. Read more…

Arkansas bill opens academic contests to home-schoolers

It would be illegal for public schools to take part in academic competitions that exclude home-school students if the Legislature enacts a bill considered in the House Education Committee on Tuesday.

Rep. Mike Kenney, R-Siloam Springs, said House Bill 2860 is necessary because the Arkansas Activities Association won’t let schools take part in academic competitions that include nonmembers. So groups that host such competitions exclude home-school students so that public school students are able to participate, he said.

Jimmy Coates, administrator of the association, said a longstanding rule has been enforced since last year, when a parent complained that a home-school student beat a public-school student in a competition. Read more…

Homeschoolers are dominant in annual reading competition

The team of homeschooled students who won the annual Battle of the Books contest last year came in second this year, bested by another team of homeschooled students they practiced with.

Since November, the teams of eight students each from grades 4 to 6 have been reading 20 books supplied by the Washington County Free Library. Twenty teams competed in a written competition in early March, with eight teams advancing to Saturday’s oral competition.

Last year, the Patriots won the contest, in which teams are asked questions about the 20 books. Members of that team returned this year as Patriots Return. Read more…

Homeschooled teen wins title after intense spell

The students blazed through “exultant” and “babushka.” Things got a little rockier around “miasma,” “sacrosanct” and “pugilist.”

But it took words that would send spell-check into conniptions to really trip up the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade champion spellers yesterday.

How would you do against “obstreperous” (to stubbornly resist control) or “adumbrate” (to outline broadly, omitting details), not only spelling these tongue-twisters out loud, but with bright stage lights reflecting off your braces, your voice cracking from tension — or possibly hormones — as you demonstrate your verbal prowess before more than 100 strangers? Read more…

Home schoolers get out of the house

NEW YORK — The Holiday Inn banquet hall was packed with teens clad in tuxedos and taffeta. They danced the macarena, sipped lemonade, and cast interested sidelong glances at one another. The Orlando, Fla., event had all the trappings of a standard high school prom, with one exception: There were no high schoolers present.

All the teens at the Orlando prom were home schoolers.

There are approximately 2 million home schoolers in the United States, a figure that has increased 15 percent in the last 20 years, according to the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Ore. As home schooling enters the mainstream, the adults who promote it have sought more ways of getting home schoolers out of the house, to broaden their social circles, and help them acquire the leadership credentials needed for college applications. Read more…

Home schoolers want a shot at sports

Nathan Meade, 14, can pitch, play third base and hit for a little power. And he’d like to play for his local high school baseball team in Coweta County.

But Meade is home schooled and is essentially forbidden from playing on public school teams.

“He needs coaching and he needs the [high] level of competition to improve,” said Nathan’s father, David Meade. “We think that home schoolers are being discriminated against by not allowing them access to resources which our taxes pay for.” Read more…

Home Schooling Meets Big Brother

(Editor’s Note: The following is the 10th of 100 stories regarding government regulation from the book Shattered Dreams, written by the National Center for Public Policy Research. CNSNews.com will publish an additional story each day.)

After moving to Lynn, Mass., in 1993, Michael and Virginia Brunnelle decided not to enroll their five children in public schools, opting instead to educate them at home.

The Brunnelles’ credentials for home schooling are impeccable. Virginia is a certified elementary school teacher, while Michael has a Master’s Degree in Christian education.

Although Lynn Public School officials approved the Brunnelles’ qualifications as teachers, the contents of the curricula and the instructional materials, they still would not allow the Brunnelles to home school their children unless school officials were allowed to conduct periodic inspections of the Brunnelle home “to verify that the home instruction plan is being implemented.” Read more…

Tennessee Democrats reject equalizing scholarships for Homeschoolers

NASHVILLE – A Senate committee rejected more attempts Wednesday to equalize lottery scholarships between public- and private-college students and to standardize the academic requirements for regular and home-schooled students to receive the scholarships.

The Senate Education Committee voted 5-4, along party lines, to endorse the earlier recommendations of a lottery-scholarship task force giving students attending state universities a $4,000 annual grant and $2,000 to those attending private institutions. Read more…

Book clubs help children, parents bond

After Wendy Ogden read “The Mother-Daughter Book Club,” she decided to start her own.

“I sped-read the book, and I was intrigued by what the author said about not knowing her own mother as a pal or a peer. The author started a book club to help her and her daughter learn more about one another and get beyond just a mother-daughter relationship,” Ogden said of the book by Shireen Dodson.

Ogden, of West Des Moines, and her daughter, Rachel, started a monthly mother-daughter book club and invited several of Rachel’s friends and their mothers to join. The 5-year-old club is made up of eighth-grade girls and their moms. They meet monthly. Read more…

Book: Parents Arrested for Legally Home-Schooling

(Editor’s Note: The following is the sixth of 100 stories regarding government regulation from the book Shattered Dreams, written by the National Center for Public Policy Research. CNSNews.com will publish an additional story each day.)

A Virginia couple was arrested for legally home-schooling their child. Gerald and Angela Balderson were arrested on March 17, 2000 after truancy charges were filed against them by a local public school administrator. The Baldersons, however, point out that they followed proper procedures to have their son, Brett, legally schooled at home, and therefore were not in violation of truancy laws.

Virginia law requires home schoolers to notify the local public school superintendent of intent to home school. The Baldersons had submitted the proper notice on February 25, 2000. Read more…

Home-schooler wins regional spelling bee

Not only did they equal the girls in numbers in the final rounds of the Mid-Missouri Regional Spelling Bee contest yesterday afternoon in Launer Auditorium at Columbia College, but also it was two boys who got to smile at the end.

Coyt Westfall, a Columbia home school student, snagged first prize when he spelled “funambulist,” which describes an acrobat who performs feats on a high wire.

Kyle Williams: Socialization of homeschoolers

On nearly a daily basis, I am asked about the socialization of homeschoolers. That poor horse has been beaten dead from both sides. We know who continues to address the “problem,” and it has been dismissed. Yet, what I, at least, have failed to address is why socialization is not only a non-issue for homeschoolers, but socialization is better done at home.

We can point to the successes of homeschoolers, their accomplishments and their abilities, but aside from that, why should socialization be done at home? First and foremost, God commanded that parents should teach their children, in Deuteronomy 11: 18-19: Read more…